Oklahoma governor signs Texas-style ban on most abortions

Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed a Texas-style abortion ban that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of being pregnant

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press

3 May 2022, 23:03

• 4 min read

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a Texas-style abortion ban on Tuesday that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, part of a nationwide push in GOP-led states hopeful that the conservative U.S. Supreme Court will uphold new restrictions.

“I need Oklahoma to be probably the most pro-life state within the nation," Stitt tweeted after signing the invoice.

Stitt's signing of the invoice comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's high court docket that it's considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The bill Stitt signed takes effect immediately along with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court docket on Tuesday denied an emergency request to quickly halt the invoice. Abortion providers say now that the new law is in effect, they will immediately cease offering companies for girls after six weeks of being pregnant.

“While the regulation is in impact, which it now could be as a result of the governor signed it, abortion services after six weeks might be largely unavailable," stated Rabia Muqaddam, a staff lawyer for the New York-based Middle for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, however we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom will still grant us relief."

The brand new law prohibits abortions as soon as cardiac exercise could be detected in an embryo, which specialists say is roughly six weeks right into a being pregnant, earlier than many women know they are pregnant. An identical invoice approved in Texas last year led to a dramatic discount within the number of abortions carried out in that state, with many women going to Oklahoma and other surrounding states for the process.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, said Texas' legislation that took impact in September has given their staff an idea of what a post-Roe nation may appear like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I have frequently treated patients who're fleeing their communities to hunt care," Alsaden said. “They’re taking day off of labor, taking time out of faculty and taking time away from their household duties to get the care that till September 2021 they were capable of get safely and readily in their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if carried out as the result of a medical emergency, but there are not any exceptions if the being pregnant is the results of rape or incest.

Just like the Texas regulation, the Oklahoma bill would permit non-public citizens to sue abortion suppliers or anybody who helps a lady acquire an abortion for as much as $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed that mechanism to stay in place, other Republican-led states sought to copy Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, although it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.

Stitt earlier this yr signed a invoice to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, but that measure is just not set to take impact until this summer season, and authorized experts say it is prone to be blocked as a result of the Roe v. Wade determination still remains the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions carried out each year in Oklahoma, which has 4 abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last twenty years, from greater than 6,200 in 2002 to 3,737 in 2020, the fewest in additional than 20 years, in accordance with knowledge from the Oklahoma State Department of Well being. In 2020, earlier than the Texas legislation was passed, about 9% of the abortions performed in Oklahoma were girls from Texas.

Earlier than the Texas ban took impact on Sept. 1, about 40 ladies from Texas had abortions carried out in Oklahoma every month, the data reveals. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas ladies in September and 243 in October.